Chapter 812: Appearance of the Giant Cauldron

“Old man... Aren’t you going overboard by doing this...” Shang Xia sighed helplessly while staring at the Fate Dipper Clone before him.

“What’s the matter? Are you afraid?” The Fate Dipper Clone spoke, but his attention was placed on the incomplete Stargazer inheritance on the jade slip Shang Xia was holding.

“Not really. However, once they discover what happened, a majority of the experts of the Azure Ascension World will stand against you. Aren’t you afraid that some of them will be unable to control their emotions and destroy everything you spent the past 40 years creating in the You Continent?” Shang Xia mumbled helplessly.

Without even raising his head, Kou Chongxue’s Fate Dipper Clone muttered, “We’ll just have to see if you manage to grasp the opportunity...”

Shang Xia sneered in contempt after hearing what he said. “Aren’t you still here? Why will I need to make a move?”

The Fate Dipper Clone arranged the information on the jade slip and replied, “This clone of mine is unable to activate and move the Stellar Cauldron.”

Nearly rolling his eyes, Shang Xia sighed, “What’s the point of leaving your clone here then? Not only will it shave away at your true body’s combat prowess, if you run into an opportunity to advance, you won’t be able to enter the grand completion stage while lacking a Fate Dipper Clone.”

“Oh, there’s no need to worry about that. There won’t be a lack of opportunities.” Kou Chongxue's clone said before standing up to look at Shang Xia. “The reason why I had to leave a clone behind is that without it, you won’t even have the qualifications to try to activate and shift the cauldron.”

Finally getting an answer, Shang Xia stopped talking about the matter altogether. He pressed his lips together and mumbled something else. “Anyway, did you manage to understand something from this? Why don’t you give me some pointers on how to proceed?”

“It’s too bad this inheritance isn’t complete. However, it would have a massive help if I managed to read this before I left.” The clone sighed.

“So... How will it help you?” Shang Xia pressed on for an answer.

Turning to Shang Xia, Kou Chongxue's clone put on an extremely serious face and he growled, “Stop making things difficult for me! I’m just a clone!”

...

In a secret chamber of the Talisman Hall, a five colored light that was swirling around Shang Xia started to shrink as they returned to his body.

When all of it returned to his body, Shang Xia, who had been cultivating for some time, slowly opened his eyes. A five colored qi emerged from them before he suppressed it.

Exhaling a turbid breath, he started to inspect the changes in his dantian.

After my Five Element Arts improved, the speed at which I can refine fate dipper essences increased greatly. In slightly over half a year, I refined my fifth set of fate dipper essences... I even changed the yin yang alignment for some of them...

Now that Shang Xia completed the refinement for his fifth set of fate dipper essences, he estimated that he had already completed half of what he should do to solidify his progress in the Five Element Realm.

Of course, he still needed some time to get used to them. He wasn’t able to control his fate dipper essences perfectly as he just completed the refinement process.

Getting to his feet, he emerged from his secret chamber. When he did, he saw a Fate Dipper Clone clad in dull yellow clothes analyzing the various talismans he made when he wasn’t cultivating.

“Hehe... The way you crafted these talismans is nothing short of being classified as a divine method...” The clone stared at a rank five Teleportation Talisman and muttered softly.

Shang Xia understood the personality the clone had after interacting with him for a long time and he spoke casually, “Why do you seem so idle?”

Placing the talisman down, Kou Chongxue's clone picked up a rank five Abyssal Emptiness Talisman beside it for a closer inspection. He pressed his lips together before looking at the pieces of ruined rank five talisman papers that lay on the table. “It’s a pity these have been wasted... The Tongyou Institution might be massive right now, but I believe it wasn’t easy to obtain rank five talisman paper. Oh yeah. Is there some sort of problem with your Five Element Evasion Talisman? Why haven’t you succeeded yet? Are you still going to be wasting more talisman paper trying to craft them?”

Shang Xia was too lazy to talk to Kou Chongxue's clone who had been a little too mouthy after being in a state of deep sleep for tens of years. He shot another question of his own rather than responding to what the clone had been asking. “Hey, time should almost be up. Those outside aren’t getting too anxious, right?”

Kou Chongxue's clone chuckled, “Someone has been standing guard outside the whole time. They discovered that you left seclusion the moment you stepped out. It’s just that no one has the guts to come over to disturb you.”

Nodding slightly, Shang Xia tidied out the artifacts and treasures that were all over the place. He kept several pieces of wasted talisman paper and fragments of spiritual jade or still like that. At the same time, he sorted the rank four and five talismans.

Who would have thought that Kou Chongxue's clone would grab a Clone Talisman from the stack of rank four talismans as he was about to put them away? He mumbled, “Your cultivation method might be extremely special, but for what I can see, you can’t make a Fate Dipper Clone yet. Wouldn’t that make you look a little too weak to others? Don’t you have any way to solve it?”

With a frown on his face, Shang Xia asked, “What are you trying to say?”

Waving the Clone Talisman in his hand, Kou Chongxue's clone explained, “A rank four Clone Talisman can contain a strand of your aura and it seems like it’s used to confuse your opponent. However, a rank five Substitution Talisman can take one’s place in critical situations and save their life. I even heard that a rank three Paper Figure Talisman can contain some amount of fighting strength. Don’t you feel like the entire talisman inheritance is a little weird? Higher ranked talismans in the inheritance possessing lesser combe capabilities to the point where one can only use to to run or to take their place in death...”

Shang Xia didn’t actually need his reminder as he had long since noticed that point.

However, Kou Chongxue’s clone wasn’t done. “You even managed to come up with the Five Element Evasion Talisman... Why don’t you try consolidating and modifying the inheritance to create a talisman that can contain a portion of your aura while also being able to take your place in death? Wouldn’t that be equivalent to a Fate Dipper Clone?”

Shang Xia glanced at the clone before muttering under his breath, “You have no idea how crafting talismans works, do you? You don’t know the intricacies of the process and you’re guessing away... You think it’s that easy to come up with something like that? If it’s just coming up with ideas, anyone can do it...”

“Oi, little brat! You’re going too far! If you have the balls, tell that to my true body!” Kou Chongxue’s clone grumbled softly at the side.

Glancing at the clone from the corner of his eye, Shang Xia snorted, “Even if I don’t tell him, you’re still gonna snitch anyway...”

Widening his eyes in disbelief, Kou Chongxue’s clone grumbled, “What kind of person do you think I am? Do you really think I’ll snitch on you?”

“Person? Do you think you can be considered one?” Shang Xia clearly didn’t bother responding politely at all.

“Fine, fine, fine...” Kou Chongxue’s clone snorted twice and examined Shang Xia from head to toe. However, he was eventually unable to contain his curiosity and he snapped, “So?! Aren’t you going to explain why it’s not easy to come up with a talisman that is comparable to a Fate Dipper Clone?!”

Shang Xia understood that even though the clone had some obvious flaws, he was extremely persistent. If Shang Xia couldn’t come up with an explanation the clone could accept, the clone wouldn’t stop asking questions. Eventually, he sighed, “The Five Element Evasion Talisman can be said to have been derived from my Five Element Movement Art. I comprehended and successfully trained in the Five Element Movement Art, and I understand its limits and how it can be applied in a talisman. The Substitution Talisman inheritance came from a cultivator from the Spirit Abundance World and I learned how to craft it without fully understanding the principles that the creator of the talisman used. It’s not impossible for me to modify the talisman, but it’s going to take a long time...”

After he spoke, he pointed at the bunch of wasted talisman paper he kept and laughed, “Didn’t you think that I was wasting talisman paper before? If I try to come up with a talisman according to what you said earlier to combine the effects of the Paper Figure, Clone, and Substitution Talismans, I’m afraid I will need to use a lot more rank five talisman papers before successfully creating one...”

Kou Chongxue’s clone fell silent and no longer spoke.

Seeing as everything was mostly cleared up, he released the restrictions and opened the doors. A Talisman Disciple of the Talisman Hall who had been standing outside ran in to greet him the moment the doors were open.

Shang Xia retrieved a scarlet-red jade seal and handed it over to the disciple. “Hand this to Shang Xi of the Teaching Division and tell her she has to use her spiritual energy to nurture the seal day and night.”

Acknowledging the order, the disciple accepted the seal with both hands before turning around. Throughout the motion, he glanced at Shang Xia’s secret chamber, but he couldn’t see anyone else within.

A voice rang in Shang Xia’s ears the next moment. “Rank four Golden Sun Inferno Talisman Seal... You’re just handing it to your aunt like this?! Should this old man here assume that you’re using the institution’s resources for your own benefit?”

Without turning his head, Shang Xia sneered, “Firstly, it’s not as though I can successfully create rank four talisman seals by using the Fire Jade Essence. It’s not the Impaled Stone and it’s not proven that the seal can be completed even after the spiritual energy nourishment. Secondly... Shang Xi might be my aunt, but she’s a Martial Extermination Realm instructor of the institution. She is more than qualified to be given a rank four talisman seal.”

Kou Chongxue’s clone’s voice rang in his ears again. “Why not leave the talisman seal in the Talisman Hall? From what I can see, close to half of the talisman seals you made have been given to people outside the Talisman Hall.”

Shang Xia mumbled in response, “The Talisman Hall’s foundation comes from crafting talismans. What’s the point in keeping talisman seals here? They’re only here to serve as inheritances...”

The news of Shang Xia leaving seclusion soon spread to the rest of the institution. Yun Jing and the others invited him over to discuss some matters.

By the time he arrived, he noticed that many of those who were also present were ‘new faces’ he hadn’t seen much in high-level discussions. It wasn’t as though he didn’t recognize those people, but the usual seniors of the institution were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were people who had banded together to form a mid-sized faction in the institution.

When he rushed over, Yun Jing and Ji Wenlong were sitting at the very front of the hall. Shang Bo was stationed in the eastern region of the You Continent, and he didn’t come back for the meeting.

Seeing as Shang Xia had arrived, Yun Jing quickly gave her greetings. “We were all waiting for you. In the time you were in seclusion, there were changes to the Celestial Remains above the Jiao Continent. The various powers are itching to move after feeling it.”

Shang Xia felt a thought flashing through his mind, but he still asked, “What happened?”

Yun Jing turned to the side to look at Ji Wenlong who started speaking, “A huge amount of world origin started to pour out from the Celestial Remains recently and loud blasts would ring from time to time. Large scale spatial fluctuations covered areas in the Beyond Heavens Pavilion above the Jiao Continent and 3 days ago, a strange phenomenon happened. A figure of a giant three legged cauldron appeared in the skies above the Celestial Remains.

Shang Xia’s pupils shrank slightly and he immediately felt that things weren’t looking good.

Ji Wenlong didn’t stop there. “Right now, the various factions have already started to send their experts over. There are more than 10 Martial Dipper Realm experts who have arrived and there are still people rushing over as we speak. There are also rumors going around that the three legged cauldron is the Origin Holy Artifact that belonged to the Starry Marsh Elysium...”

“Origin Holy Artifact? What’s an Origin Holy Artifact?” A bunch of cultivators in the hall started asking after hearing Ji Wenlong bring it up.